They're not voting because...

1) I am not voting FOR anyone, because...

1) I am not voting FOR anyone, because I am under the impression that the great majority of MPs suffer an illusion that they are elected to support a party rather than the interests of their constituents. So we end up with political careerists who think that honesty is a relative concept.

2) Manifestos cover such a variety of issues, and I believe that only a minority of the turnout vote positively for a candidate. The rest vote for what they consider to be the least of the evils on offer. This results in a false mandate.

3) No party with a credible chance of achieving power offers the prospect of reforming our electoral system.

3) Our political system is disgracefully corrupt (a judge, no less, recently compared us to a banana republic), and I have my self respect to maintain.

99) I'm in the ballot spoiling camp.

written 24th Apr 2005

Responses

Michael M. replies: Original poster wrote: "2) Manifestos cover such a variety of issues"It's a great weakness of our representative (indirect) democracy that relying on election promises and manifestos we have to delegate practically total control of public affairs. Many issues cannot be adequately debated and considered by (we) the people who are affected. What if new issues arise between elections? Bringing in some tools of direct democracy can help to restore balance here. For more detail see http://www.iniref.org/

written 24th Apr 2005

About Not Apathetic

NotApathetic was built so that people who are planning not to vote
in the UK General Election
on May 5th can tell the world why. We won't try to persuade you that
voting is a good or a bad idea - we're just here to record and share
your explanations. Whether ideological, practical or other, any reason
will do.

A lot of users would like us to
mention that if you spoil your ballot paper, it will
be counted. So if you want to record a vote for "none of the
above", you can.